Tlaxcala 6 vils age 2 semi FF

Another guide for the good folks who like to play Mexico without the bullsh$t. This strategy aims at building a strong economy early in age two before ageing up while remaining very flexible.

Game plan :

Reach age 2 fast then use the synergy between Hacienda shipments and Tlaxcala textiles to build an economic lead. Then age up to turn your haciendas into mini town centers, extending your economic lead further.

Opening :

• Perform a standard market opening. Build a market, research hunting dogs, chop wood for a house.
• Priority on food and wood treasures. As soon as you have enough wood to build a house focus only on food treasures.
• Send 2vils+Hacienda first. Place the hacienda ahead of your base to nearby natural resources. Be conservative and set the hacienda waypoint on a nearby mine/hunt.
• Age up when you have 14 villagers with Tlaxcala.

Transition :

• Chop wood for a trade post and two houses. On maps without trade lines, macro for placer mines and two houses instead.
• As soon as the 2nd shipment is available, ship the hacienda wagon. Secure some more natural resources.
• Allocate 50% of your villagers to food, rest to coin.

Age 2 :

• Pick up your XP crate and ship Tlaxcala textiles as fast as possible. Your two haciendas will produce two villagers each and you will get two more from the card for a total of 6.
• Use you wagon to produce a barracks (safe choice) or a stable (vs China) and start producing units (avoid insuregentes).
• Your next shipment is 700w for your 2nd military building, placer mines, steel traps, and housing. On no tp maps, skip steel traps and build a cathedral.

Branching paths :

As any good semi-FF what you do from now on depends on what your opponent is doing. Below are a few pointers :

• Against aggression you can produce full batches out of two military buildings if you ship 700c
• 700c is also what you send if you want to age-up. Unlike other civs, you might want to keep mining coin beyond the usual 300 as you may be tempted to pay for your fast age-up. All age 3 federal states have their use :
  • Tabasco for a tech switch into salteadores. Especially after a prolonged age 2.
  • Sonora if plenty of natural resources are still on the map and you are looking to extend your economic lead.
  • Sinaloa to contest the water. The "Pearl of the Pacific" shipment is great if you are running out of herds.
  • Coahuila for a late pseudo TC boom with your Haciendas. Use the 500 wood to build an extra one if you can.
  • San Luis Potosi for high tempo with a musk-huss composition. Make sure you have population space left.
• 600w is only useful to seize a trade line or if you urgently need population space.

Variants :

• The cards marked with an "X" are soldado upgrades. You can substitute them out with guerrilla tactic and either "observers" or "Plan de Miramare" if you want to use salteadores in your army.
• The cards marked with a "Y" are chinacos specific upgrades. You can replace them by Queen's dragoons and Plan de Tacubaya (double rax in age 2 to produce both soldado and salteadores and send Tacubaya in transition to age 3) if you plan to have a skirm-goon composition in age 3. I don't build goons in age 2. Every time I tried it failed spectacularly.